Little known Irish Amateur Boxer, Robert Gorman is Responsible for the Biggest Boxing Match in the World This Year Being Postponed…Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Juan Manuel Marquez

By Jonny Stapleton

Little known Irish Amateur Boxer, Robert Gorman is responsible for the biggest boxing match in the world this year being postponed.

The return of former pound for pound ring king, Floyd Mayweather, who retired with an unblemished 39 fight record after defeating Ricky Hatton in December 2007, was boxings most eagerly anticipated event.

However, the much lauded contest with Juan Manuel Marquez had to be postponed after ‘Pretty Boy’ picked up a rib injury.

It appears Robert Gorman a big body punching Irish amateur inflicted that injury and was the catalyst behind Mayweather’s decision to pull out of the multi million dollar fight.

While the Irish Amateur High Performance Team were preparing for the EU Championships, fellow amateur Gorman was in the infamous Top Rank gym sparing with former World Amatuer Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist, Yuriokis Gamboa.

So impressive was the Irish puncher, who most claim was robbed of victory in this years nationals, and subsequently a place on the High Performance team, that he was personally asked by Mayweather’s camp to spar with pro boxing biggest name in a bid to ready him for Marquez.

But rather than prepare Mayweather for the multi million dollar clash the Ballbrigan native put paid to the fight.

“I was chosen to fight Mayweather because I have a similar style to Marquez. Now after going toe to toe with the greatest boxer in the world I would take on anyone. I have learnt so much and I am not afraid of any fighter. It was a pity my time got cut short due to the Mayweather’s injury,” The 25 year old explained.

“I won’t admit to injuring him, but I won’t say I didn’t injure him. What I will say is that I am a big body puncher. I bang in body shots. Plus I spared four six minute rounds with him and after the session with me he still hasn’t got back into the ring. I was the last man he sparred. I had to wait for a week to see if was ready to spar again but was then told the fight was called off. You can draw your own conclusions.”

Accolades have been pouring in for the unknown Irish puncher since his exchanges with some of American boxing biggest names and so have the offers. Gorman, has been courted by some of the games big names. However the determined pugilist who would give Rocky Balboa a run on the heart and fight stakes has a point to prove at amateur level and will remain unpaid until at least 2012.

“I am all set to qualify for the Amateur World Championships. What better way is there to prepare than facing the best boxer in the world. I will book my seat on the plane to the Worlds in July. Then I will go and win them and bring back gold for Ireland. I am very confident and after being in with Mayweather and Gamboa. I know I can face anybody.

“I will consider going Pro but only after I achieve everything at amateur level first. I will be a gold medalist in the Olympics in 2012 too. I am not trying to sound cocky but I am confident and I have to believe in myself. I beat the current world amateur champion at my weight in the O2 on the under card of Bernard Dunne’s big fight and in the National Championships, but was robbed twice. The president of the IABA said the judges beat me not any fighter in Nationals. Now I am going to ensure its impossible for anything like that to happen again,” the qualified fitness instructor concluded.

LAS VEGAS -- Floyd Mayweather Jr. has said rumblings about his financial troubles are nothing more than rumors, but public records obtained by The Associated Press show the boxer nicknamed "Money" owes about $6.4 million to the Internal Revenue Service and others.

The IRS hit the former pound-for-pound boxing king with a lien in October for $6.17 million in unpaid taxes from 2007, according to the Clark County Recorder in Las Vegas. A New Jersey Superior Court judgment from the same year shows he owes $193,000 in state taxes there.

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's manager, disputed the documents and said he believed they were inaccurate.

"Floyd Mayweather does not have a problem with the IRS," Ellerbe told the AP on Thursday. "He doesn't owe the IRS $6.1 million ... I don't (care) what a lien says."

"When you have a problem with them, you ain't hard to find -- ask Wesley Snipes," Ellerbe said. "You go to jail, they come take your (stuff). He doesn't have a problem."

Snipes, the actor, is currently appealing convictions of willfully failing to file his income taxes and his three-year prison sentence.

"[Mayweather] is free to move and do anything and everything he wants to do with no problems at all. None whatsoever," Ellerbe said.

Besides taxes, county records in Las Vegas show the former five-division champ has unresolved debts worth $9,400 to three homeowners associations. Other liens filed with the county say the boxer did not pay nearly $3,900 to a contractor that programmed electronics at one of his homes and $320.10 to his trash collector.

Mayweather, who is returning to the ring after retiring a year ago, has said his scheduled September fight against Juan Manuel Marquez isn't all about a big payday, but a lucrative purse couldn't hurt in his ongoing battle to keep up on his bills.

The IRS and others use liens to secure payments by placing a claim on the property of individuals who owe them money. Liens damage a person's credit rating and remain on credit reports longer than other negative information, such as late payments. Once unpaid taxes are satisfied, the IRS files lien releases saying so with the county recorder.

Raphael Tulino, an IRS spokesman, said Thursday that the agency does not comment specifically on individual tax situations. The IRS said in the October lien itself that it has demanded payment, but the 2007 taxes remained unpaid.

A clerk in New Jersey Superior Court said Thursday that the $193,000 judgment there had not been satisfied.

Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) has been socked with liens in the past and paid them off, according to recorder records in Clark County. The IRS filed liens totaling nearly $6.3 million for unpaid taxes from 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006, and three homeowners associations also filed claims against the boxer that were later resolved, county records show.

Asked about the liens that had been resolved, Ellerbe said: "We're talking about what's going on right now. I'm sure you might have been two days late paying your rent two, five years ago."

The former Olympic bronze medalist made more than $50 million inside the ring during his final 18 months of boxing before he abruptly retired last year and turned his attention to show business.

Mayweather has proved to be a bankable celebrity outside the ring.

He has appeared on ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" in 2007 and is featured in a current AT&T television commercial. He has said that he made $8 million last year without fighting.

He also cashed in his "Pretty Boy" nickname for "Money."

"America is built on two things -- controversy and money," Mayweather told HBO before he defeated Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007. "It's not a black thing, it's not a white thing, it's a green thing."

The cable network documented both fighters leading up to their match for its "24/7" reality series. The same episode showed Mayweather hand-counting $10,000 stacks of $100 bills and bragging about winning $34,000 after betting on an NBA basketball game.

Mayweather received a reported $20 million to wrestle on WWE's "WrestleMania XXIV" in 2008, part of his efforts to increase his entertainment profile. At a promotional event for that appearance in Los Angeles, Mayweather incited a couple hundred fans by whipping out a money roll and repeatedly tossing $100, $50 and $20 bills into the crowd.

The boxer likes to be seen with a wad of cash, large entourages and expensive jewelry.

"You see me -- 250 on the wrist, $300,000 on the pinky, $600,000 on the neck," Mayweather said on another "24/7" episode filmed before his fight with Ricky Hatton in December 2007.

YouTube videos show Mayweather tossing $100 bills into crowds at night clubs -- known as "making it rain" for the way the bills look when they fall.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal labeled him the "reigning king of flash and cash" in 2007 for regularly showering patrons and his entourage with cash and expensive Cristal champagne. The newspaper said that Mayweather and his entourage travel in a three-car fleet made up of a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Maybach and a Mercedes McLaren SLR.

"I've seen him make it rain at least 20 times in the last couple years," Branden Powers of Poetry nightclub told the newspaper. "Pound for pound, he's the best tipper."

Ellerbe said Mayweather's comments about money were made just to promote fights.

"Him saying he got a bunch of money, that's an image, that's an image. It has nothing to do with his business," Ellerbe said. "And he can say anything he wants to, but I'm giving you what the facts are. And the facts are Floyd Mayweather does not have a problem with the IRS, or anybody else, for that matter."

Mayweather's comeback fight, delayed until Sept. 19 after Mayweather damaged rib cartilage while training, had been scheduled for July 18 at the MGM Grand hotel-casino in Las Vegas.

Mayweather and Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) are expected to fight at a catch-weight of about 143 pounds, eight more than Marquez has ever fought and the lightest Mayweather has been since 2005.

I admire that you are willing to say you are wrong about his injury. That is cool. BUT, I said from the beginning that the fake injury theory could be real. It's a SAD part of the sport. Just like PBF taking JMM as a return fight is part of the sport, regardless of the slight weight difference.

Honestly, if this is an another attempt to say that "Floyd is broke", I just have to laugh at you. This is tabloid crap. Really, SERIOUSLY, your report tried to reference $9,400 in HOMEOWNERS ASSOCIATION FEES!!!! Anybody who has ever owned a house in a decent "caddyshack" esque neighborhood can tell you the association fees are ridiculous. That fee is probably for ONE year on a house of PBF's stature, and saying he is BROKE because that payment is late, or not paid, is just silly.

Rock... you KNOW how ****ed up our government is, why do you use it as a way to attack a TRUE capitalist? A guy who actually really FIGHTS for his money, but is ripping NOBODY off.... I love you on every issue but this....

Though, I do understand NOT being a Mayweather fan, you should not ignore his positives, or his talents in the process.

I'll be honest, it was late and I was partying when I found the article so I didn't read all of it. However, I saw it was from ESPN and the Associated Press, which you said if it comes from them, it must be true, so I decided to post it.

My HOA fees are $500 a year, but I also don't own a mansion. I don't know how true that is, but his house is at least that much higher in amount that the ratio between 500 and 9400 might be correct. I did see his episode of MTV Cribs.

Yes, I agree, he earns an honest wage and isn't exactly ripping anybody off. I just don't have any appreciation for a guy who comes back for boxing and on ESPN, says it's all about money. It doesn't mean he's broke, but if he isn't broke, why doesn't he just pay the 6 million to the IRS and have it overwith? Also, I'm a hater of his attitude, so I'll hate on him all I want.

LAS VEGAS — In the midst of the cameras, microphones and questions, Floyd Mayweather Jr. pauses to take inventory of what's ahead.

Saturday's showdown with Juan Manuel Marquez at MGM Grand is important (HBO PPV, 9 p.m. ET), as is the TV interview he's booked to do next, but neither comes before his 9-year-old daughter, Iyanna.

"I've got to pick up my daughter from school," he says, pausing to alert his publicist, who offers to find his mother to do it. "Don't worry about my Mom I'm picking my daughter up today. She's been going to school for a while and I haven't picked her up yet."

This is the fighter, and the man, Mayweather wants to project: A thoughtful, considerate, responsible 32-year-old father of four, dressed down in a white T-shirt, sneakers and camoflauge pants. Not the cursing, trash-talking multi-division champion, flaunting the cost of his home, designer boots or visits to strip clubs.

"(Marquez) respects my fight game. He told me that a long time ago," says Mayweather of the low-key final press conference Wednesday, where he rose to shake hands with Marquez's trainer as the pair showered one another with compliments. "It's just a lot of fighters in the past I talk trash to have really disrespected me. … So I say bad things."

Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs), regarded as the mythical No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter before leaving in 2007, has passed every test with flying colors.

There's also the perception that this is a fight between a great little man (Marquez has never fought above 135 pounds) and a great bigger man (Mayweather has gone as high as 154). It's being billed as a welterweight bout though it'll be below the 147-pound limit. Marquez also is four years older.

"I feel like I always was a pay-per-view star," says Mayweather, whose win vs. De La Hoya drew a record 2.4 million buys and almost 1 million with Hatton. "Marquez has a good following with his Mexican people. He's going to have a lot of support."

This bout was originally announced for July 18 but pushed back to Mexican Independence weekend. Since then the push to grow this into a superfight by co-promoter Golden Boy Promotions has been substantial:

•Three major sponsors are on board that weren't for De La Hoya-Mayweather: Quaker State, Affliction clothing and AT&T's first venture into boxing.

•Tecate is offering a $25 mail-in rebate on the $49.95 show for viewers, with purchase of an 18-pack or larger, and a $30 rebate for food purchases at participating stores nationwide.

•An aggressive campaign through social networking sites and in the urban dotcom markets, BET.com, JayZtv.com and Allhiphop.com, among others, to reach out to Mayweather fans.

HBO is in on it, too, using this fight as a launching pad for its new approach to saturating the marketplace with digital content.

It's all part of "the hunger to go younger," says Mark Taffet, senior vice president at HBO PPV. "If you overwhelm that younger demographic with advertising, they tune you out. They want content. ... We're moving in a completely different direction than what we were doing a year ago."

Mayweather's purse won't be known until Friday because of deductions, says Keith Kizer, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. The IRS is expected to attend to collect back taxes. According to Kizer, the agreed upon total is "unofficially $5 million."